The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems (IHS's), and more particularly to a network switching IHS implementing software defined networking (SDN) applications for transferring information between IHS's.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an IHS. An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Conventionally, the control of network switches and routers has been proprietary and determined by the manufacturers of the equipment. Software Defined Networking (SDN) seeks to change this by making the control plane (e.g., the information defining what to do with incoming packets such as, for example, the information in the routing table) remotely accessible and modifiable using SDN applications. SDN applications have been developed that can manage security policy, network load balancing, power, routing algorithms, packet modification and redirection, and/or a variety of other network criteria known in the art.
However, SDN applications expect to have full control over the incoming packets, which becomes a problem when multiple SDN applications are added to the system, and particularly when those SDN applications are provided by different vendors. For example, a first SDN application may be desirable for associating rules or actions with packets that provide for network load balancing, while a second SDN application may be desirable for associating rules or action with those packets that provide a security policy. In some situations, the rules or actions provided using the first SDN application will conflict with the rules or actions provided using the second SDN application, which can result in conflicting logic that creates unpredictable network behavior. The solution to this problem is to build an SDN application that perform all the functions needed by the system (e.g., an SDN application that provides for both network load balancing and security policy), and that SDN application may then be designed such that no rules or actions conflict. However, this solution makes it difficult to quickly and easily leverage new innovations in SDN because of the need to build a SDN application that provides all of the desired SDN functionality in a system in order to implement a new SDN functionality.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved SDN network switching system.